No matter what your creed this chap has a point....

[Rupert]

Being in the UK, I have no idea who Ben Stein is, or what he does, or his views beyond this.  So to those who do, is this typical?

Apparently the White House referred to Christmas Trees as Holiday Trees for the first time this year which prompted CBS presenter, Ben Stein, to present this piece which I would like to share with you. I think it applies just as much to many countries as it does to America ....




The following was written  by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday  Morning   Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every  single one of my ancestors was Jewish.  And it does not bother me  even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled  trees, Christmas trees.  I don't feel threatened.  I don't feel  discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.
It doesn't bother me a  bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me.  I don't think they are  slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto.  In fact, I kind  of like it.  It shows that we are all brothers and sisters  celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that  there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach  house in Malibu .  If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me  as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.


I don't like getting  pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting  pushed around for being Christians.  I think people who believe in  God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period.  I have no  idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist  country.  I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it  being shoved down my throat.


Or maybe I can put it  another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship  celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God ?  I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.  But  there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from  and where the America we knew went to.


In light of the many  jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little  different:  This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's  intended to get you thinking.


Billy Graham's daughter  was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could  God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina)..   Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.  She  said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for  years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our  government and to get out of our lives.  And being the gentleman He  is, I believe He has calmly backed out.  How can we expect God to  give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us  alone?'

In light of recent  events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.  I think it  started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a  few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we  said OK.  Then someone said you better not read the Bible in  school.  The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal,  and love your neighbor as yourself.  And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock  said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their  little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem  (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide).  We said an expert should know  what he's talking about.  And we said okay.

Now we're asking  ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right  from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their  classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think  about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.  I think it has  a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is  for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to  hell.  Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question  what the Bible says.  Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail  and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages  regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.  Funny how  lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace,  but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and  workplace.

Are you laughing  yet?

Funny how when you  forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list  because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you  for sending it.

Funny how we can be more  worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of  us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.

If not, then just discard  it.... no one will know you did.  But, if you discard this thought  process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is
in.


My Best Regards,   Honestly and respectfully,
 

Ben Stein

[4Eyes]

ermm...... unless I read that wrong, once he has got over the 'reasonable' bit of 'lets all be respectful but sensible', (hard to argue with that) ...  the overall theme of the rest of it seems to be that God has got pissed off with us 'trashing' him, and as a result is allowing natural disasters to wipe out thousands of people.

It is not an uncommon view historically - in fact it seems to be pretty much the explanation that any religion uses to explain why God doesn't prevent disasters.

I wonder if he is he also suggesting we should all start building Arks... or maybe everyone in Brighton should leave immediately and not look back over their shoulders for fear of being turned in a pillar of salt.

.. or I am reading it wrong?

[Rooftop]

It's a pretty arrogant and objectionable rant in my eyes. Borderline delusional in ones place too... The US Ann atheist country? I think he's confused between atheist and agnostic (which it still really isn't)

[buckworks]

everyone in Brighton

Why Brighton? Is there a story to that?

[4Eyes]

Brighton has a strong Gay and Lesbian community - to the 'fire and brimstone' wing of religion, this could easily be confuse with Sodom and Gomorrah... probably

[jetboy]

According to Wikipedia, Ben Stein is an advocate of intelligent design, and believes that Darwin's Theory Of Evolution was a contributory factor in the Nazi Holocaust. I'll give him his due; that last bit is very clever propaganda.

jb (for the record, an agnostic athiest, and a believer in evolution)

[Rupert]

Should have know, the "God bit" would get a hang up

I read it as Wars tend to be religious.. get over it...

And broad terms like that. 

I am not a God man myself, but do not object to any that are, everyone is entitled to there option , delusional or not.

Sigh.

[jetboy]

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_ben_stein_christmas.htm

"A small portion (perhaps a third) of each of the above texts was indeed written by columnist and TV personality Ben Stein and delivered by him on the CBS Sunday Morning program on December 18, 2005 (you can still read the original piece on Stein's website).

The rest was haphazardly cobbled together by person(s) unknown from various anonymous writings circulating on the Internet for the past 10 years.

For example, the quote attributed to Billy Graham's daughter Anne Graham Lotz is actually a paraphrase of statements she made on September 13, 2001 in an interview with Jane Clayson of the CBS Early Show. The subject matter of that interview was not, as alleged in the email, Hurricane Katrina, but the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.

The claim, appended in 2011, that Stein was inspired to write the piece after the Obama White House allegedly referred to Christmas Trees as "Holiday Trees" is false on two counts: 1) at no time has the White House substituted the term "Holiday Tree" for "Christmas Tree" in recent years, and 2) Stein wrote it in 2005, three years before Obama became President."

[4Eyes]

I read it as Wars tend to be religious.. get over it...

... then you really must have read it differently from me - written by him, or by others, with malicious intent or without, it is structured argument which builds to make a controversial point

The 'reasonable' intro, coupled with the more controversial main section is just a rhetorical device.

Should have know, the "God bit" would get a hang up

Aww come on now, you know better than that. The whole point of argument IS the 'God bit' - so not really a 'bit' in any kind of sense.

Whether it was written by him, or to discredit him, it is silly.

[littleman]

The intersection of politics and religion is much more divisive in the US, so I think the American Core are staying out of the thread instinctively.  Ben Stein is well known in the US as a conservative thinker/writer/commentator and he's been at it for many years -- he was a speech writer for Nixon

[Rupert]

Thanks Littleman.

And Jetboy

The rest was haphazardly cobbled together by person(s) unknown from various anonymous writings circulating on the Internet for the past 10 years.

4eyes, you are right, I should know Better

[4Eyes]

The intersection of politics and religion is much more divisive in the US

yeah - you can say that again

I read somewhere that US church attendance (of one form or another) was something like 6 or 7 times higher in the US than the UK - not sure if it is true or not, but if it is, it is quite an alarming gap from either point of view.

[edo]

Agree with Jason. People can believe what they want to believe. But I don't have to respect them for basically ignoring scientific evidence and not coming to terms with the harsh reality that our existence means next to nothing to the universe.

There is a place in the world for religion, but it's purely to meet up and help other people less fortunate than you. Everthing else is medieval nonsense.

[ukgimp]

Bill Maher

http://m.youtube.com/?rdm=4p9mbiglc&reload=3#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DKAvDtPz33w0&v=KAvDtPz33w0&gl=GB

[ergophobe]

Does God have no other means of communication besides sending ambiguous signals through hurricanes?

I'm pretty sure that if God wanted prayer in the schools, Katrina would have been followed up by an apparition of angels saying that more Katrina's would follow until we shaped up. And God, being omnipotent, would send a hurricane Katrina a week, in and out of season, until we shaped up.

Meanwhile... evidently God liked us better when we had prayer in schools, but we didn't let African Americans vote or intermarry with white people?